Headscratchers / Full Metal Panic!

• When Kalinin is lecturing the Mithril personnel before the first mission in the series, he emphasizes that they cannot risk allowing their technology to fall into the hands of the enemy, and that if they are forced to abandon their machines, they must destroy them completely—"Don't let them have a single screw." He even makes good on this later on, telling the last to leave the battlefield that they are to launch all of their remaining missiles at Kurz's destroyed AS before leaving, even though he has no confirmation that the operator has escaped from the machine. He's evidently very serious about not allowing Mithril technology fall into the wrong hands. Why is it, then, that he is totally okay with launching the unmanned Arbalest into enemy territory an episode later, hoping that Sousuke would be the one to locate and pilot it? True, they had confirmation that Sousuke was safe and in hiding, but they had no guarantee that he would be the first to reach the unmanned AS after they launched it, and he was both outnumbered and surrounded, drastically reducing his chances of getting to the vehicle successfully. Moreover, the Arbalest represented the pinnacle of Mithril technology at that point, meaning that if his crapshot had failed (highly likely), the consequences could be devastating.
  • Two things. Firstly, it is demonstrated that when it was revealed, the Arbalest had to be activated via a passcode given by Sosuke that was set to his voice. Presumably, the security system was designed so that if Sosuke didn't reach it in time, it wouldn't have activated if another pilot tried to access it, or it might have even self-destructed. Secondly, the first time they do this, it is a good idea to keep in mind the fact that Tessa and Kalinin were bending the rules to begin with by trying to supply any aid to Sosuke and the others, operational procedure dictating that they should've already gotten the hell out of there. Since they were bucking the rules already, they probably figured it wouldn't hurt to take a leap of faith and pull a very risky maneuver that could cause a great deal of trouble if it failed. Fortunately for them, their risk paid off. But I wouldn't be surprised if they had a few contingency plans in place in case it didn't work.

• If Leonard and Tessa are siblings and both Whispered, they must be twins since all Whispered were born at the same time. But on the closer examination, they can't: even if we let slip that hair color aside, they don't look too similar (OK, they are obviously fraternal twins) and that Leonard is visibly older than Tessa, there's still the matter of birth time: according to the backstory, all Whispered were born at the same time, and what little this (male) troper knows about childbirth, even twins are born one after each other, with at least a minute in between, and not simultaneously. Another explanation would be that Leonard and Tessa were sired by the same father with different women and but the timing of their simultaneous birth becomes mind-boggling. Or they are not really siblings. Or the Whispered backstory isn't real. Or the author just didn't do enough research on childbirth...
  • Tessa and Leonard are twins. There the possibility that a caesarian section was involved. It's also possible that the author didn't consider the fact that there would be a gap between their births. One would need to know how long the Tau waves (the outside force that created the Whispered) persisted. It has been revealed that some Whispered are more gifted than others depending on how long they were exposed to the waves. If the waves lasted, say, an hour, then there is a good chance that Leonard was born first, then Tessa within that time period, resulting in them both being Whispereds with Leonard being more advanced due to longer exposure.
    • The wave lasted three minutes. Tessa must have been a very easy birth.
• There is also the probability that being a Whispered is genetic. I believe there was an accident at a Nuclear Power plant that resulted in the creation of Whispered from children who were currently still in the womb at the time. It is a bit of a stretch to imagine that people would have been able to exploit the Whispered immediately, in all likelihood a generation passed before the Whispered's technology was able to be put into operation. Thus, if this were true the only way for Whispered to be still in existence would be if the trait for being a Whispered were genetic and could be passed on. Thus it is not all the unlikely, if we accept this to be true, that two siblings born at different times could have been Whispered.
  • No. All Whispereds were born on December 24, 1981 ('84 in the anime) at 11:50 GMT.
    • To be precise, a three minute interval after that. Long enough to solve the previous issue as well.

• How the hell did Sosuke get away with bringing guns to school in the beginning? The teacher that catches him with them calls them "toys" as though they were nothing, and he gets away with nothing but a scolding. At my school, if you were found with anything that even looked like a gun, you'd be freakin' arrested.
  • Yes, but YOUR school isn't in Japan, circa 1997, in which actual guns are illegal and harder to get ahold of than a Nuclear tipped ICBM. The idea of a High school student owning one would be abit like a student in the states owning a suit of power armour. She REALLY did think they were toys. Also, Rule of Funny
    • However, Sosuke actually tells his teacher it's not a toy. Even if she doesn't immediately believe him, you'd think that would at least open her up to the possibility it's real.
    • Also, when you never have seen a real gun, it might not automatically register as a danger, like it does in the USA.
    • Plus in Japan, air guns are the norm. Having an actual weapon with you (unless the police know you have it and they're fine with it and even at that, it's limited to a few choice weapons) is asking yourself to get screwed in the prison system for a very, very long sentence. The Firearms and Swords Control Law's penalties play a role in getting almost all gun crimes down.
  • It is repeatedly stated that Mithril gives a LOT of donation to the school.
• So...is the anime over? they're just going to introduce a sweet new villain on the last episode and just...end? dick move, FMP. Dick move. If i'm wrong, please tell me, but an anime as popular as this shouldn't end in the middle of the story. i was expecting to see something about how the show got cancelled or something, but apparently it just...ended. can anybody shed some light on this for me?
  • The anime is based on a series of novels. They have been initially adapted to manga, then into anime. When TSR ended, the novels weren't finished yet. The last volume has been released in August 2010. Since then, there has been some talk about the KyoAni studios making another series, but they have been caught up with other projects. But they do have the rights to animate the novels, and they are very good friends with the author, so there are still good chances of a sequel.
  • You're in luck. FMP has returned in all its glory (12 years later) with Invisible Victory.
    • Apparently, "in all its glory" only means twelve episodes (not counting recaps - and seriously, two recap episodes for a season that short?)
• Why didn't Mithril ever tell Chidori about their mission to protect her? Seriously, what reason is there not to let her know? It would make their mission a lot easier if she knew she needed protection and could work with the assigned guards. It certainly would have saved Sosuke and his team a lot of headache.
  • If I may wager a guess, her father's a UN diplomat and Mithril is known by various international organizations. You never know who can put two and two together. Mithril is also founded as a secret society after World War II and was needed to keep an eye on the world pre-Cold War after Amalgam, the original group, went rogue and worked with the other side. Plus, some UN officials do know of Mithril's exploits.

• So is Michel Lemon supposed to be a expy of Benny from Blavk Lagoon. Same blond hair and hair style. Same glasses. Same Hawaiian shirt. And is NAMSAC supposed to be an expy of Roanapur?